


Not Alone

by kez



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-13
Updated: 2013-04-13
Packaged: 2017-12-08 09:22:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/759745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kez/pseuds/kez
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something is up with Finch.  Reese follows him to find out what.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Alone

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd. Any mistakes are my own.

Reese realised something was wrong in the third week of March. 

It was icy cold, because spring had not yet caught up with them and he spent a lot of time thankful that the bad weather seems to be keeping the criminal element, if not at bay, at least less obvious about it and the machine slows down to spitting out only one or two numbers a week.

While Finch seems mostly normal – they work, they talk, they fuck – part of him is aware that Finch isn't really _focused_. Though with Finch even 50% of his attention is enough to get the job done, it's still... unsettling.

Reese could try the direct approach, but after three years he knows that won't work, so he decides to go back to tailing his boss/friend/occasional lover, when they aren't actively working on a number.

He's surprised by how much Finch doesn't seem aware of it, until he realised that while he is following, Finch... Finch is following someone else.

Reese felt annoyance burn in his gut, is this a number Finch hasn't told him about? Finch had only hidden a number from him once before and Reese had made if clear then – or so he thought – that he didn't need to be protected. If it is, Reese thinks, he might punch Finch in the face and it's not that he'd never thought before, that he might like to do that, especially in the early days, but he'd never thought before that he really _would_ do it.

But his anger melted quickly when hours later, still following Finch, following their mystery man, he realised where they were... and he watched, with Finch, while the mystery man, knocked on Grace's door. Where he watched Grace smile at him and kiss him and invite him inside.

Mystery solved. At least in part. He had no idea who the man was, or how they'd met, but it seemed pretty obviously that whoever he was, he and Grace were more than simply friends.

On the one hand, he and Finch had been sleeping together, on and off, for months. So he was pretty sure Finch didn't have any right to be casting stones. He wouldn't say they were dating, or anything so pedestrian, but still, Finch had hardly been virtuously saving himself for a woman who believed him dead.

On the other, he knew if positions were reversed – and they had been, if not in quite the same way - his heart would be breaking.

Without even thinking about how it would look to be caught following, Reese came up alongside Finch near the railing he was hiding behind. He moved just close enough that their shoulders were brushing, without saying a word.

"He is an editor at one of the publications I used to get Grace work," Finch said, finally, after a few moments of silence. "Widowed, one daughter, in high school. He likes art, Italian food and has an impressive collections of ships in bottles. No criminal record, no dirty secrets..."

"Sounds like a nice guy..."

"Yes," Finch agreed. "I... have no right to be... I should just be happy for her. I _am_ happy for her... but..."

"You still love her," Reese murmured. "I know."

"Yes, I suppose you do," Finch said. "I hope you know, I care for you a great deal..."

Reese pressed a gloved hand against the back of Finch's neck. "I know that too. It's okay, Harold, you don't need to explain it to me. Talk if you need to and I'll listen, because I care a great deal for you too, but you don't owe me any sort of explanation."

"And yet you followed me," Finch murmured wryly.

"I was worried," Reese shrugged.

"Thank you," Finch said. 

Reese tried not to let his surprise show, but he was sure he failed. 

Finch didn't call him on it though, as they turned away from Grace's house and started walking, without discussion, Finch's arm casually knocking against Reese's as they walked.

"Would you like to go to dinner, John?" Finch asked, after a couple of blocks had passed them by.

Reese smiled and let his own arm knock back against Finch's. "I'd love to."

He knew Finch would be fine. And even if they could never replace what they'd each lost, at least they weren't alone.


End file.
